


Nice Day

by tonikaku



Series: Waking Up [2]
Category: No. 6 - Asano Atsuko
Genre: Alternate Universe, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-11-05
Updated: 2011-11-05
Packaged: 2017-10-25 17:48:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,023
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/273068
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tonikaku/pseuds/tonikaku
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's a nice day in the hospital gardens.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Nice Day

It is a nice day; perhaps the nicest day in several weeks. Summer is drawing to a close, preparing his baggage to leave the country: first go the nights that don't cool below 35°C, followed by humidity and days hotter than 40°C. Then go the cicadas; it's a gradual process of noise fading away so slowly that at first you do not notice it is gone before one day when Autumn has already taken the lead, it hits you that the nights are almost void of noise.

Shion is sitting on a bench, watching birds fly far above his head; he has to shield his eyes from the sun that is still burning, if not as hot as a week ago when lying in the grass under a tree was a sweaty undertaking. A light breeze is caressing his face and tousling his hair. To his feet, wild flowers are swaying and dandelion parachutes are tumbling skywards. Such a nice day, he thinks. I wish Nezumi were here.

His wristwatch beeps; lunch break is over in five minutes. Shion gets up and walks towards the entrance, greeting staff and patients left and right. A small girl runs up to him smiling more radiantly than the sun.

"Look, doctor, I'm fine again! Can I go home today?"

Shion smiles and pets her hair. You're such a strong child, he thinks, I wish I could let you go home.

"Look, Lili", he says, and his heart breaks a bit, "We still can't be sure you won't get sick again, so we'd like you to stay here for another week or so. Just to make sure you're a hundred percent fine again, okay?"

Lili's face falls. "You've been saying that for a month now! Just another week, just another week or so. Why won't you let me go home? Can't you see I'm fine? Look, I can even run again!"

Her pretty face grim with determination, Lili starts running around Shion. Pata, pata, her feet hit the ground. Yes, Lili, you can run, I can see that. But this isn't about you being able to run. I'm sorry.

A whistle; Lili stops dead in her tracks. Her face lights up again and Shion's heart loosens a bit. He mutters thank you, almost inaudibly, to the whistler.

"Inukashi!" Lili's cry is answered by a mix of deep and light barks whose owners are turning the corner just in this moment. A bit behind the dogs Inukashi is jogging, two other dogs left and right next to her. She, too, seems to be in a better mood than only few days ago; dogs don't like the heat, she had said, see, they can't sweat, and then there's all that fur…

Shion had smiled and suggested soaking their fur in cold water. Inukashi had only thrown him a dirty look as if to say, are you really trying to tell me what's best for my dogs? Oh, come on.

The slightly cooler days make her dogs more content, and content dogs make Inukashi happy. Shion had once commented on just how easy Inukashi was to please, to which she had answered: "Look who's talking! Do you have any idea just how you smile when Nezumi just freaking _looks_ at you? Seriously, it's disgusting how lovey-dovey the two of you are."

Shion had felt his face heat up in embarrassment. He couldn't deny it; Nezumi's eyes had that effect on him. But bringing it up in a place full of people? Full of his co-workers? And were the gagging noises really necessary?

Shion chuckles softly. Inukashi looks at him like she often does, completely bewildered at what she calls his 'complete obliviousness' or 'naïveté bordering on stupidity'. He doesn't care, not really, since he knows that Inukashi doesn't mean to hurt him; it's just her way of communicating with people.

Right now, she is communicating with her dogs, telling each of them where to go, which child to play with, which elderly gentleman to lay his head on his lap, telling one of her younger ones not to be too rough with Lili who is laughing with delight at a smooth dog tongue washing her face. Shion's thoughts momentarily stray towards 'bacteria!', but again, he knows how Inukashi handles her dogs. Their eyes meet for a few seconds. Shion nods his thanks, Inukashi her acknowledgement before she continues walking towards a bench where a new patient is sitting, obviously confused as to why dogs of every kind suddenly appeared.

Shion, too, continues his way to his office. He has got an operation scheduled for four o'clock in the afternoon; until then, he is fully booked for several incoming patients. He is hoping for no more children today; not being able to release Lili weighs heavily on his conscious.

I promised her it wouldn't take too long, but that was almost two months ago.

Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, he grabs the doorknob to enter his office when suddenly, his pager beeps.

Emergency surgery. The lightning at a theatre fell onto the stage and buried two actors mid-rehearsal. Lungs might be pierced. The actor with the more severe injury is to be operated on immediately.

Shion asks his secretary to reschedule his appointments and hurries to the emergency room.

The victim's face is covered with a surgical cloth; at least the skull is alright, Shion thinks. He lets his eyes wander over the bloodied torso. Several ribs appear to be broken and yes, that is definitely a danger to the lungs, but there's something else that is not quite right.

Shion's breath stops. His head feels too light.

I know this body, he thinks. This scar. I know this scar.

The voices around him fade to white noise.

With trembling fingers, he removes the face cloth.

 

When Shion wakes the next morning, his face is wet – probably with tears or sweat, it really is hot outside already – and his heart so heavy he isn’t sure he can get up. His alarm clock, however, is merciless, and so he faces this day the way he faced the last.


End file.
